Kaden: Saving Private Ryan
by RatchetKicksAss44
Summary: It's the Great War. Kaden has been selected to go on a mission to attack a Cragmite base. But when he loses a squad member, he feels the need for suicide. But when all hope seems distant, he hears his dead squadmate in a comm transmission saying it's not too late. Kaden and the rest of his squad can save the odd man out...if they don't die first.


**Kaden: Pre-Keeper**

**Chapter 1**

I can still remember my first-ever mission.

Back then, I thought everything you would think to be a mission near impossible to accomplish. Now that I'm here as the Keeper, I think those missions mainly consisted of just running around, grabbing an objective, and shooting at "paper" targets. But my first-ever mission…that one was probably my hardest.

Planet: Ebaro. Local time: 0513. Mission briefing: Tachyon's cruiser was seen landing on this planet. His objective is unknown; however, we have a lead saying he may be storing raritanium bombs in a base he used earlier in the war. My objective was to find out what he's doing. But first, I had to meet a doctor that had been mobilized here. Doctor Noa Weis. My two other squadmates, Alister and Ryan Wrigley, were already there with her and were waiting for me.

One thing you need to know about the Testosterone Trio (me, Alister, and Ryan): We can't pass up an opportunity to show off when we've got a rendezvous and one of us is behind. So I decided to come in the way I thought would impress Noa (and hopefully not have her do some magical doctor shit to relocate my shoulder): parkourism. No, wait, that's grand finale shit. I gotta hoverboot in. Scare the hell out of all the Cragmite soldiers there and throw grenades every three meters so they can't chase after me. God, I love explosives. They make everything so much easier, even dying.

I jumped, and my hoverboots activated. There wasn't a lot of good hoverboarding ground. There was just flat terrain, which you wouldn't expect in a spinning rainforest. I just started tearing up the ground on the straightaway in front of me. Nothing too exciting for about two minutes. Then there was a ramp about fifteen feet high. I rode straight up it, and right off again. Backflips, twisting in the air, hell, even a jackknife. Just no dives, thank God. You can't dive into solid ground and walk away from it with your head still attached. I landed feet-first and continued my journey through the forest, the very boring, super-flat forest.

Up ahead, though, was a one-story house or something. It must have been a civilian home before the war. One quick stop wouldn't hurt anybody…unless, of course, some Cragmites came to play. Then there would be blood. Making sure there were no traps first, I pushed the door open.

Everything was a bit dusty, but otherwise in a perfect condition. Everything looked like it had been used recently. It might have been a Cragmite base for all I knew, so I drew my energy pistol and searched the rooms. I first checked the living room for anything suspicious. There was a glass of ice water on the table, with large ice cubes still in it. So somebody was here, out of sight.

Next, I checked the kitchen for anything that might have been eaten or used. Nothing was there that looked strange. The bedroom wasn't odd in any way, or the dining room, hell, nothing was being used except that glass. So what was going on? I knew that I hadn't checked any of the closets or anything, so I decided I would keep my options open. Bedroom closet: absolutely trashed, nothing secret. Living room closet: neat, no passageways. But, of course, rugs were good hiding spots. I decided to test it out.

I found a button under the carpet. Score one for the commander. I stepped on it, and a section of the floor flashed between transparency and opaqueness, eventually vanishing to show a secret passageway. My lombax curiosity once again taking over, I jumped into the hole and immediately hit the floor eight feet below the surface. The floor resealed itself over my head, and everything was dark. This is when flashlights come in handy. However, though I had no such thing, I did have a very bright, light blue centerpiece on my armor, and it revealed our worst enemies: Cragmites. They were trying to force entry into a room through a door. My pistol made short work of them. I went to the door and knocked. The door slid open to reveal a very bright light and a very familiar figure: Alister.

He had changed since his so-called "betrayal" of our kind. Instead of kind blue eyes, they had been sucked out of existence and replaced with evil, glaring, red eyes, surrounded by a yellow sclera. He had grown stripes, too: red ones. Nice white guy turned evil Satan massacre in two seconds, it felt like. His height wasn't changed at all, though. But the most interesting thing was that he had his ARC-3 assault rifle pointed at me. When I saw it, I raised my hands in a gesture of surrender the same time he lowered his rifle.

"Whoa. Password to the clubhouse?" I said, trying to make a joke.

"Yeah," he replied in his gruff voice. "'Don't shoot my ass.'"

"Don't shoot my ass," I said, laughing lightly as I said it.

"Entrees-vous," Alister said, and he stood aside to reveal something like a medical lab. It was domed and painted white. Numerous objects glowed different colors, attracting your attention from something else that looked just as wondrous. I looked ahead and saw Ryan, the third member of the Double-Ts.

He was the oldest, two cycles ahead of Alister, five ahead of me. He was average in height, about five foot seven. He had orange fur and red stripes, and was wearing holoflux armor. His left eye had a scar over it, leaving his eye completely useless. He was the tactician of the group, always planning this and that about just capturing a Cragmite advance guard totaling three, count them, warriors. Everyone has to have a hobby. His is annoying the shit out of people.

"Hell, I guess Alister's gonna let any damn person in here. Wassup?" said Ryan, greeting me in his African-American voice. "Finally made it, huh?"

"Yeah. No resistance, but you could have made it easier to find."

"Screw that. This is war!"

"Whatever. Got Pins and Needles yet?"

"Who?"

"The doctor, dumb ass!"

"Yeah, she's here." Ryan sidestepped to reveal a female lombax. She had light blue fur and dark yellow stripes. She was on the short side, but from what I'd heard, she was tough and strong. Her eyes were a kind emerald, like mine.

"So this is the famed Kaden Darkstar I've heard so much about. I can see why they brag," she said. "Come here, I've got something special for you."

"Not a ring, I hope?"

"Ha, ha," she said sarcastically. "Just give me your arm."

"Yeah, I'll give you my left arm instead of my third, if you were hoping otherwise," I replied.

Next thing I knew, I was pinned to the floor, and she was kneeling on me.

"Just so you know, I hate fast women."

"And I hate arrogant men," she said. She stuck the needle into my arm, which didn't hurt, but wasn't very pleasant. Then she got off of me and let me up.

"You're not fuckin' around, are ya?"

"No, but _you _will be parkouring around after that settles in," she said. "That was a metabolism, health, stamina, and agility boost wrapped up into my own vaccination recipe. I call it the Ultimate Steroid."

"What's your name, anyhow?"

"Wedney," she said. "Wedney Coba."

"Married?"

_Pow_! The chick could hit hard.

"You finished with your love life, Kaden?" I heard Alister say.

"If you want to talk us through the mission, yes."

"Okay, then. Huddle, everybody."

We all got together, and Alister talked us through the steps. First, I would go as the advance guard and open the doors to the outpost. Then we'd regroup at the transport pods and take a pod down into the base under the outpost. Then we'd steal the plans for their new death bots or whatever the hell they were and haul ass out of there. Hopefully we could strike at them with their own weapons before they could use them against the lombaxes.

One thing was apparent: this wasn't going to be easy. Cragmites guarding every square inch of it. I could die on step one. All we could do was cross our fingers and hope for the best.


End file.
